Miamiliotis, A.S.; Talias, M.A. Healthcare Workers’ Knowledge about the Segregation Process of Infectious Medical Waste Management in a Hospital. Healthcare2024, 12, 94.
Miamiliotis, A.S.; Talias, M.A. Healthcare Workers’ Knowledge about the Segregation Process of Infectious Medical Waste Management in a Hospital. Healthcare 2024, 12, 94.
Miamiliotis, A.S.; Talias, M.A. Healthcare Workers’ Knowledge about the Segregation Process of Infectious Medical Waste Management in a Hospital. Healthcare2024, 12, 94.
Miamiliotis, A.S.; Talias, M.A. Healthcare Workers’ Knowledge about the Segregation Process of Infectious Medical Waste Management in a Hospital. Healthcare 2024, 12, 94.
Abstract
Any Hospital’s primary goal is to restore human health and save lives through health services provided to patients, but at the same time, hazardous wastes are produced. Inconsistent management of unsafe wastes might cause adverse effects and other issues to workers, the environment and public health. Segregation is considered the critical stage for a successful Healthcare Waste Management. Mixing hazardous waste with non-hazardous waste will be avoided by correctly applying practices at the segregation stage. This study aimed to assess personnel’s knowledge about Infectious Medical Waste and segregation practices used at six wards in Nicosia General Hospital. An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted, and data were collected through a structured self-administered questionnaire. The Statistical Package of Social Science (SPPS) version 25 was used with a minimum statistical significance α=0.05. The study population was nurses, nurse assistants, ward assistants and cleaners working at the study wards. Out of 191 questionnaires, 82 were received, with a response rate of 42.93%. Most participants were female (72%) and nurses (85,4%). Participants had medium to good knowledge about Infectious Medical Waste management and good knowledge regarding segregation practices applied in their ward. Segregation was not carried out as it should have since most participants stated that Infectious Medical Wastes were mixed with non-hazardous waste. Correct answers given by the participants regarding color-coding of different Healthcare Waste categories was 67.5%, and only four answered correctly to all questions. Although participants knew segregation practices and the colour-coding process applied for Healthcare Waste, they didn’t use them satisfactorily. They applied methods regarding segregation without specific training, knowledge and guidance. Due to the issue's importance, training programs must be implemented and performed.
Keywords
Infectious waste management; Healthcare waste; Hospital; color coding; segregation; Public Health
Subject
Public Health and Healthcare, Health Policy and Services
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
